(3rd person PoV)
Early on, Nephelont and Eucleia were cared for together. They were put in the same crib, a large enough crib to fit both of them. That was because they absolutely refused to separate for long. Maybe it was the company of someone of the same age, though that would be subconscious want and need on the children's side.
They always came back to Nephelont hugging Eucleia, yet they did not know why.
Sometimes, Eucleia would have also gotten out of her swaddling cloth and hugged him back. Her mood would better on those days.
"Look at them, our cute angels" Meteria fawned over the kids. Her voice stirred Nephelont, who stretched his hand for her.
'Cute!!' Meteria swooned internally. While Meteria was distracted, Alfia stretched her finger to meet Nephelont's tiny hands.
"Gah!" He grabbed her finger and giggled.
The pure, innocent giggle melted her thoroughly. Alfia fell victim to her great-nephew.
'A sun-touched rabbit, caressed by warm winds' She got flustered by her own thoughts and tried to pull away.
Nephelont did not like it. He instinctively channeled his power when he cried, crackling with red lightning, though it was barely noticeable. His tearful eyes were threatening Alfia to spill over with sadness.
"Shush, little Nephelont. Here is my finger" Alfia relented before his tearful eyes. As soon as her finger was back in his hand, he giggled again.
"Meteria, can I kidnap him?" Alfia blurted out unconsciously. For her troubles, Ais gave her a reminding chop to the back of the head.
"My son" She was very clearly pouty and upset.
"Okay" Alfia toke her words back quickly.
"Goo~ Gaa~!" Nephelont thrashed around like any child, giggling just as loud, the tears that welled up in his eyes moments ago falling down in happiness. He was happy to hold onto another person, a person who he considered a family member.
"Is Nephelont awake, Ais?" Albert, Ais' father, came to visit.
"Dad, you are back" Ais and Aria went for a hug. He hugged both of them. Aeolus smiled at the sight. The sight of her child and her granddaughter being happy was a happiness to her. "Umm, Nephelont is awake"
"I want to play with him a little before he sleeps" Albert's heart swelled. Nephelont reminded him of Ais as a newborn child. It brought back memories.
"Taa~!" Nephelont was also happy to see Albert's familiar face, blurry as it was. At a month of age, Nephelont's eye coordination and hand dexterity was above that of his peers. He was improving way faster than the falna itself would have allowed. By comparison, a child at 6 months of age would have the same vision normally.
"Nephelont~" Bell called Nephelont, making him ditch Albert for dear dad. Albert, now heartbroken, handed Nephelont over to Bell.
"Gha~ah!" Nephelont spread his arms wide as he was taken into Bell's awaiting arms.
Eucleia, however, was developing slower than him. Her vision was as developed as a 2-months-old.
"They say that children grow fast, but isn't he growing too fast?" Hestia had a hunch. It must have been one of the corrupted skills. There were two of them.
"If it lets him grow quickly, then that's fine. he just needs to counter it by ranking up as soon as he could to prolong his lifespan" Bell took it positively. He wanted to believe that his son was not going to let it hamper him once he grew up and grasped the gravity of his situation.
Bell started drawing shapes on Nephelont's palm, tickling him. "Gah~!" Nephelont giggled with joy. He saw this as a form of playing, which it was in a sense. Because of excessive emotions, Nephelont let out some small sparks, giving Bell a light zap.
"Wah! Wa-wah!" Eucleia woke up, immediately crying to be held up. She was hungry.
"Here, my little princess" Hephaestus held up her daughter, who was struggling to convey her hunger. It stung her while she was sleeping, taking the poor child by surprise.
(At 3 months old)
Around this time, Nephelont was already standing up, though needing help to balance himself. His body was big enough that someone would think he was legitimately over a year old.
"One~ Two~" Meteria was playing with Nephelont by allowing him to hold her hands while walking.
"Ahm~ Oo~!" He repeated after her, heart filled with childish pride at his accomplishment. He was taking steps forward. He stumbled and fell often, but he did not get hurt with the grown-ups constantly taking care to avoid such a thing.
"Aagah~!" Eucleia was pushing herself hard to imitate Nephelont and stand up. The simple fact that her mother held her hand, helped her walk and smiled at her made her happy.
"Apparently, even children as young as them compete" Hestia said. She remembered a time when Eucleia saw Nephelont stand up and cried when she could not stand even with assistance. That was one time when Eucleia was upset with Nephelont close to her, trying to surpass him. She pushed herself to the point she could stand up at this age, though her wobbly legs barely supported her with others' help. 'Nevertheless, Eucleia is happy'
A while later, Hephaestus wanted to return home. She wanted to sleep in her home for once in the last month or so.
"Should we go, my dear?" Hephaestus asked Eucleia as she picked her up, sitting her up on her arm.
"Agu?" Eucleia did not understand the words themselves, but a part of her jolted, telling her that she was getting taken away from Nephelont. "WAAHH!! WAAAHH!!" She cried with all she had.
"WAAAHH!!" Hearing her cries, Nephelont cried as well. Ais picked him up to pat his back.
"It's okay now. There is nothing to fear, son" Ais said. After crying for so long, her soft voice lulled Nephelont to sleep.
Eucleia, however, did not fall asleep. She shimmered with the slightest of multi-colored light before disappearing and appearing beside Nephelont in the crib. She only slept once she hugged him.
"Did my daughter... just use what I think she used?" Hephaestus went pale and started panicking. She feared that her daughter might be dragged up to the heavens because of this little thing. After nothing happening for a while, she calmed down.
While Aeolus and Aria were almost unconscious from fright, Ais was simply puzzled.
"If she was born down here, why would she have a place to return to up there? She hasn't taken the same oath as any of you" Ais reminded Hephaestus of a truth she forgot. What sent a deity back was breaking the oath, not the use of arcanum itself. Since Eucleia did not make the oath, she was not obliged to follow it, nor did she suffer the restrictions.
'I'm glad!' Hephaestus' legs buckled under her. She fell to the floor. 'I'm truly glad!' She started crying in relief. She would have been torn between staying with Welf or going back to the upper realm permanently if her daughter was pulled into said realm.
(At 4 months old)
"Aren't teeth only supposed to start coming out at least two months later?" Meteria asked. Her knowledge on raising kids was secondhand, hearsay if you will. "Also, aren't they too sharp for human teeth?"
"True" Hestia's thoughts were confirmed now. One of the corrupted skills is a dragon transformation skill. "It seems that one of his skills leaked out into his body, altering it permanently"
"Really?" Henryk entered the room having heard them talking from outside. "By the way, his eyes aren't human either. They are shaped like vertical slits" He pointed out, further making the others shocked.
"Now that you mention it..." Aria was studying Nephelont's eyes when the little felon had a smart idea. In his childish curiosity, he felt something swell within him, and released it.
"Ah!" Aria was zapped by a miniscule red lightning. Her hair puffed out with some soot covering it. Nephelont giggled at his brilliant piece of art, Aria's soot-covered afro.
"Red lightning now? Really?" Henryk was shocked for a totally different reason. "My lady, we may have a very rare breed of dragon in this little guy. Be careful of him" Henryk laughed at Aria on the way out. He just came in for a quick look at the kids and was supposed to go back to monitoring the eyeless black gecko with the others.
Eucleia was stumbling in her steps while holding onto the furniture. She was adamant on walking alone when she saw Nephelont do it. Just in case, Hephaestus was crouched beside her daughter to support her if needed.
"Such a competitive spirit! That's my daughter!" Welf scooped her up and held her high. He is a proud father of this little Crozzo lady.
"Welf, you know this level of competitiveness can become a problem, right?" Hephaestus sighed at this. As long as he did not throw her into the air, she had no problem in Welf raising Eucleia up high.
(At 1 year old)
"Mummy!! Hungy!" Nephelont screamed. He was running through the corridors, and the others had to avoid him because he was running with his eyes closed.
"Lady Hestia, are you sure you still didn't update their falnas?" Haruhime asked out of curiosity. It was just too out of the norm to grow this quickly. He shouldn't have talked by the age of 1 year.
"No, but as long as he is happy, you could forget it. Henryk said that the dragon species that uses red lightning should live up to thousands of years by default. He should live long" Hestia said with hidden concern. What Henryk said and the truth were not necessarily the same. What she detected was his own truth on the matter, not the absolute truth.
(At 2 years old)
"Mo~mmy~! Nephelont is bored!" Nephelont flailed on the ground. "Nephelont wants red bunny!" He demanded his playmate be brought here, now.
"She is washing with her mommy. Could you wait until they are done?" Ais said while patting his head. How he was sitting in her lap right now is beyond anyone's comprehension.
"Okay~! But Nephelont is also hungry~!" He chirped while holding his toes. "Can Nephelont have mashed potatoes with meat bits?" He figured out early in his life that wide, wide eyes were really effective in getting his parents and grandparents to give him what he wanted.
Nephelont used Innocent Eyes!
It was very effective!
"Let's go to the kitchen" Ais put him down and they raced there.
{Tempest} They both chanted before rushing their way over to the kitchen.
Recommended by Aria, Ais used play times to indirectly teach him how to command the wind around him.
'Henryk's handywork allowed this free control of the wind, and Nephelont is going to benefit from it, I'm sure' Ais looked to her side, barely able to pretend to be slower by a very miniscule margin.
They busted into the kitchen, where Eucleia appeared out of nowhere and dropped on top of Nephelont. She just could not wait any longer before joining him in whatever he was doing.
"Golden bunny~!" Eucleia greeted Nephelont while both were attempting to escape the entangled mess they were.
'Hahahahaha-' Mini-Ais was laughing her heart out. The way they tumbled to the ground, the stark contrast between what little draconic features Nephelont showed and her calling him a bunny, it was all so surreal and funny.
"Red bunny~!" Nephelont smiled back at Eucleia.
"Play?" Eucleia invited Nephelont to play, her question consisting of only one word. Her speaking did not improve as quickly as Nephelont's, and as a result, her sentences were either simplified into one-word questions and answers or to broken sentences. Her articulation of the words' vocalizations was good, though. If she heard a word, she spent days perfecting her ability to say it correctly.
The duo went out running, Nephelont too excited to remember his hunger. Nephelont was cheating using his winds and Eucleia cheated back using her teleportation. Throughout the two years, Eucleia's use of arcanum did not agitate the dungeon. Maybe because it grew with her from infancy, from a weak spark into a small flame, but the dungeon did not react in any noticeable way. She was permitted the use of her arcanum on the condition that she stops when the dungeon reacts.
When they reached the garden outside, a bunch of blue papilio and purple moths greeted them. These guys were Henryk's children who wanted to be assigned to the garden's care, led by one Flora Williams.
Nephelont picked a stick and gave it to Eucleia before picking a similar stick and facing off. It was something he saw Henryk do before and wanted to try. Henryk secretly taught them how to use sticks like swords when he knew later.
Having received superficial training from Henryk in passing, they had some form to their moves, but Eucleia's form was less grounded. Nephelont pouted and corrected her. When she got it right, he told her to be proud of herself for getting it right. He was proud of her himself since she learned well.
"Fight!" They both said in unison before clashing sticks.
(At 3 years old)
"Aunty Riveria!" Nephelont ran up to the elven princess and jumped at her. For her part, she received him with wide arms. They rubbed foreheads together. Any other who dared call her with anything similar got "swimming lessons", but not Nephelont. Something about him was too endearing.
"How is our little Nephelont?" Riveria has just returned after over a year of monitoring the eyeless black gecko nonstop. She was of the few who refused to let their guard down no matter what the circumstance.
"Nephelont's doing fine!" Nephelont said.
"Bunny~ Don't leave Lia behind!" A tiny red missile hit its target. Eucleia was now wrapping her arms around Nephelont and Riveria.
"Welcome, little princess" Riveria withstood the impact and stood in place. Now, she had two bunnies clinging to her legs.
"Aunty Riveria! Nephelont wants to learn magic!" Nephelont said with wonder in his eyes. His mind was going through thousands of wacky ways to use his red lightning, but he had no control over it yet.
During the year, they worked together to make a roundabout way to use his red lightning-type magic. They developed one spell for it, for one element out of three he showed the ability to use, something which would have been absurd if not for who Nephelont's familiy members were. His parents, his grandfathers, his maternal grandmother, his paternal great-aunt and his uncles, all were absurd beyond measure. Really, it was only to be expected.
Nephelont hid this from their parents, telling Riveria that he wanted to surprise them with it.
As for Eucleia, she tried her hardest to manifest a magical spell. When she was told by Riveria to update her falna to see if one appears, she vehemently refused to. She wanted to manifest one all on her own.
(At 4 years old)
"Uncle! Uncle! Teach me how to use a spear!" Nephelont was cheerfully dangling from Henryk's clothing with Henryk pretending he could not for the life of him catch the little menace.
"Alright! Just let me go!" Henryk pretended to fall down when little nubby teeth clamped on his neck. "Ah! No! The mighty bunny got me!" He stopped moving.
"I hunted down Uncle Henryk!" Nephelont stood atop his game with a toothy grin. Once he thought the game was over, he laid face down onto Henryk's back.
"Eucleia too!" Eucleia jumped at them both, making Henryk wheeze a bit from the unexpected weight.
'Old me needs some rest. I'm already in my late 20s' Henryk did not lament a loss. In fact, there was nothing lost there yet.
"Spear lessons! Spear lessons! Spear lessons!" Nephelont said while rocking back and forth on top of Henryk. Eucleia looked at him for a moment before imitating him.
"Speear~!" She sang the word out. Her voice was melodious and therapeutic, especially for someone who was not trying.
That year, they started learning how to handle two weapons. While both of them showed a knack for the spear, only Nephelont showed the passion to continue practicing with the weapon. For Nephelont, his second weapon was a short arming sword to fall back on in case something got too close for the spear to be usable.
Eucleia preferred ranged weapons, especially slings. She really loved slings.
Their training was masked behind a fun game of "Monster Hunt", where someone plays the role of a different monster each time and the kids "hunt" the "monster". Sometimes, it was a goblin. Some others, it was a kobold. They were hunting the monsters they were likely to encounter first. The other monster types could wait.
...
Or so everyone thought. The xenos were caught teaching them how to defeat deeper floor species like "minitaurs" and ligers, among others. Nephelont refused to say minotaur correctly and intentionally said it as "minitaur".
(AN: I am aware that the mental image that nickname paints is that of a tiny minotaur)